Deadly Nigeria bomb attack on police kills 'at least' fiveBy AGENCIES | Monday, April 30  2012 at  14:42

At least five people have been killed in a bombing on a police convoy in north-eastern Nigeria, police say, just a day after the Vatican condemned what it called "terrorist" attacks in the country.

"A bomber on a motorcycle rammed into the police rider [motorcycle escort]," a police spokesman said.

The attack in the normally quiet town of Jalingo comes a day after at least 20 people were killed at churches elsewhere in northern Nigeria.

No group has said it carried out the bombings but militant group Boko Haram has staged many such attacks.

It has carried out several suicide bombings across the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria, where it wants to establish Sharia law.

Some reports say local police commissioner Mamman Sule was targeted in the Jalingo attack.

Witnesses say Mr Sule survived the attack but that the huge explosion ripped through a nearby market and the local finance ministry offices, the AP news agency reports.

On Sunday, churches were targeted in northern Nigeria's main city of Kano, as well as Maiduguri, where Boko Haram first emerged.

The attack was on a church in a university.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden", has targeted government institutions, churches, bars and mosques belonging to rival Muslim groups across northern Nigeria.

It has also attacked the UN headquarters in the capital, Abuja.

The Vatican condemned what it called “terrorist” attacks on Christians in Kenya and Nigeria on Sunday and called for restraint against a cycle of violence.

“The new terrorist attacks in Kenya and Nigeria at Christian celebrations are horrible and despicable acts,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

“We must be close to victims and communities that suffer just as they are peacefully celebrating a faith that wants love and peace for all,” he said.

“We must encourage the whole population.... not to give in to the temptation to fall into the vicious circle of homicidal hatred,” he added.

In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, a man set off a grenade during a church service, sowing chaos and killing one worshipper.

Nairobi has been hit by a series of unclaimed blasts since late 2011, which Kenyan officials have blamed on Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shbaab Islamists.